


Finding A Center

by Haberdasher



Series: Twitch Plays Pokemon [35]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Twitch Plays Pokemon (Let's Play)
Genre: F/F, Twitch Plays FireRed, Twitch Plays Pokemon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-09
Updated: 2014-05-09
Packaged: 2018-03-03 12:58:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2851565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haberdasher/pseuds/Haberdasher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The evolution of the relationship between Alice and Teala.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Finding A Center

Though the Pokemon Center escalator was already moving at a fairly fast clip, A ran up the escalator, her feet aching as they pounded against each step. Whatever was up there, the voices were very enthusiastic about reaching it. As she reached the top, she went flying, faceplanting onto the beige tiles that lined the floor. The tiles were soothingly cold, and A was content to keep lying down on the cool tile floor and feel her eyelids droop, but her brief interlude of rest was interrupted by a pleasant-sounding voice.

"Hello!"

A pushed herself off the ground and looked at the speaker, a smiling brunette woman in a white uniform. A’s cheeks turned hot as she realized that this pristinely-dressed woman had just watched her trip over her own feet. She tried to justify it by her gracelessness being part of the voices’ control- they certainly made her turn in circles and jerk back and forth gracelessly enough- but deep down, she worried that the clumsiness was her own all along.

And yet, the woman wasn’t laughing at her, or staring, or averting her eyes, like some of the other people A had passed by recently. The woman was just standing there and smiling and greeting her and treating her like a normal person, not a freak.

She brushed some of the dirt off her clothes- her socks, she noted unhappily, now had grass stains on them, and her shoes were caked in mud- and walked over to the counter where the woman stood. “…hello.”

"My name is Teala." The woman said. "What’s your name?"

"…A."

"Well, it certainly is a pleasure to meet you! Anyway, A, this must be your first time up here, huh? I don’t think I’ve seen you around."

A shook her head. “I’m from Pallet Town, they don’t have a Pokemon Center.”

"Pallet’s a nice place! I need to go visit…" Teala’s voice trailed off, and her big toothy grin was replaced by a small, thin smile. "Since you’re new, I’ll show you how the Wireless Communication System works. First I’ll show you this floor of the Pokemon Center. Right this way."

Teala launched into a long speech about the Union Room and Direct Corner, a speech so fast that A couldn’t have interrupted even if she wanted to, and she had trouble figuring out when Teala had any time to pause for breath. The wording was formal, precise, and she didn’t hesitate for a moment.

"I hope you enjoy the Wireless Communication System. Any questions?"

"…what?"

Teala started the speech again, word-for-word the same as last time.

"Wait, but how- never mind. It’s not like I have any friends anyway that would… wait, no, that… er…"

Teala leaned in closer to A, and A did likewise. “It’s okay, the system’s been on the fritz for weeks now. Don’t worry about it.”

"Okay."

"Okay." Teala cleared her throat and raised her voice as she added, "I hope you enjoy the Wireless Communication System!"

A smiled and walked away. The voices were growing restless, with many resenting Teala’s intrusion, resentful even of this brief instant in which they were distracted from whatever their mission was now. She had been standing still for a few minutes, but now she walked back and forth and in circles, walked up to the Center’s PC and turned it on only to immediately turn it back off, ran up and down and up the escalator again…

Every so often, A sneaked a glance over at Teala, waiting to see her reaction to her latest voice-guided nonsensical actions. The two made eye contact a few times, and A managed to give one small wave, which Teala enthusiastically returned. And Teala was smiling the whole time, not the thin smile of her rehearsed patter but a wide toothy grin, one that haunted her even when she averted her eyes.

A felt a strange sorrow when she was led outside the Pokemon Center to travel once more.

Her absence didn’t last long, of course. Her journey quickly brought her back to the Center soon enough, as she collapsed after her Pokemon fell in combat, the time between her loss and her arrival in the Center all a blur in her mind. She walked up and saw Teala again, grinned as she gave the same speech over and over again when prompted, the two falling into giggling fits after one particularly long stretch of repetition. She went out and battled and lost and woke up back in the Pokemon Center. It became a pattern- battle for a bit, pass out, wander the Center a bit, battle again. All things considered, it wasn’t so bad.

Then tragedy struck.

She had been playing around aimlessly on the PC again, trying to ignore the stares of other Pokemon Center patrons as she kept turning the computer on and off again. She had Pokemon leave her party and others join it and some rejoin after a brief intermission. The voices were against her Machop, her starter, for some reason, and they thought this was the only way of getting rid of it. A liked her Machop, but this party shuffling tomfoolery seemed harmless enough, and it wasn’t as though she could stop it anyway.

But one wrong button press, and her Zigzagoon, caught only a few short hours ago, was released.

Released.

Such a harmless-sounding word, released. It sounds like the Pokemon are being freed, released from some suffering; given how often the voices forced her Pokemon to fight until collapsing from exhaustion, perhaps that wasn’t too far off the mark. A wasn’t quite sure what actually happened when a Pokemon was “released”, but one thing was for sure: That Zigzagoon was never coming back.

And suddenly, out of nowhere, the tears started falling. It was silly, she knew. She hadn’t had much time to bond with the little furball, and maybe it was better off being “released” than having to put up with the voices- put up with HER. But losing her Zigzagoon had brought A to a breaking point, letting out sobs she hadn’t realized she’d been repressing, tears and snot streaming down her face. The Center patrons weren’t even bothering to hide their stares now, and she could hear some of them gossiping to one another about “that strange girl”.

Her vision was blurred beyond all recognition, the florescent lights creating a harsh glare, and A didn’t realize where her feet were leading her until she heard a voice calling out.

"A? Are you alright?

"I-" She rammed into the countertop, the pain from the sudden blow further fueling her tears. "My Zigzagoon… gone… the voices… my fault… I should’ve… I couldn’t…" She started hyperventilating, her palms tightly holding on to the edges of the counter, half-afraid that she was about to pass out yet again.

"Oh, honey. I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry. But whatever it is, I’m sure it’s not your fault, alright? You’re too sweet to be causing problems big enough for this kind of crying."

A snorted, the movement launching a snot bubble from her nose onto the counter. Her eyes fell from meeting Teala’s eyes to staring at the bubble which marred the otherwise-glistening surface of the counter.

Teala must have noticed the subject of A’s glance, because she tossed a tissue on top of the glob, then added another for good measure. “Now don’t you worry about that. This old thing needed cleaning anyway. And I need something to do all day besides telling you all about the wireless communication system, right?”

A snorted again. The flow of tears was slowing down, and her vision was clearing.

"Do you want some of these tissues, hon? Clean up that pretty face of yours?"

A weakly nodded.

"Alrighty then." Teala mopped up A’s face with tissue after tissue, leaving the dirtied tissues in a rapidly-growing pile on the top of the counter. A couple of times, Teala’s fingertip escaped the boundaries of the tissue and brushed up against A’s face directly. Teala’s fingers were warm and soft and smooth, and her every touch made A all too aware of her every bump and pimple. It was a thankless job, she knew, cleaning up after somebody in such a state, yet Teala never complained.

"All done! Now, no more crying, you hear me? Then I’ll have to do this again, and we’ve got enough tissues here already, don’t you think?" Teala gestured to the impressive pile of tissues, which she then unceremonially dumped into the trash can.

"Y-yeah, I’ll be fine. Thanks."

"Glad to hear it. Now that that’s over with… Is there something you needed to ask me about linking?"

And in a matter of minutes, Teala had managed to turn A’s sobs into giggles.

The path to Pewter City was long, but it felt even longer once she arrived at the local Pokemon Center. Teala was stuck back in Viridian, back through the forest, and a journey that long was unlikely to be repeated on a whim. A’s heart sunk as she was forced to trudge up the escalator to an unfamiliar Center’s second flood, dreading what she would find there.

"Hello, A!"

A ran over to the desk. The floor looked the same as the one in Viridian, but much more importantly, so was the woman behind the counter. It was her, the same honey-sweet voice, same bouncy brown hair, the same toothy grin.

Though A heard thousands of voices in her head every minute, this one was the only one that made her smile.

"It… it’s you, right? And this is Pewter? Why…?" Her thoughts were racing. Maybe it wasn’t her, just a look-alike who knew her name. Or maybe she’d been guided back to Viridian without her noticing. Or maybe the stress from spending almost a day on her feet jerked around by a head full of voices had made her hold on reality break once and for all. It couldn’t just be… there was no way…

"Yup, it’s me! I just transferred here. Gotta travel to shake things up a bit, you know? Now- you know what I’m going to ask you right?"

"Is it- ‘is there something you needed to ask me about linking?’"

"Right in one."

The two exchanged smiles.

Teala was there in the Mount Moon Pokemon Center, too. A started to ask how that was possible, but decided not to question it, choosing instead to spend her time giggling and bragging about beating Brock. She was there at all the other towns along the way, too…

There was a PC right next to the spot where Teala stood at every Pokemon Center, the same model as the one back in Viridian which had taken away A’s Zigzagoon. Several times, the voices tried to do what they had done there. The menu would stand displayed on the screen, the arrow would sit blinking on the “RELEASE” button. But every time, A would look over to Teala, close the menu, and turn off the PC.

Eventually, A found herself at Indigo Plateau, about to challenge the Elite Four. It had been a long and grueling journey, filled with vicious battles and near-constant fainting of both her Pokemon and herself, but from what the voices seemed to be saying, it was almost over. She just had to beat the Elite Four, and she would become Champion. She just had to beat the Elite Four, and she would be freed.

She lost horribly.

The first battle was a massacre, and the next few attempts weren’t much better. After every loss, as her vision faded and her legs failed her, A thought she caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye- no, not something, someone. Someone with brown hair and a grin…

There was an elevator tucked away in the corner of the expansive building that filled the Indigo Plateau. A saw it every time as she walked methodically back to challenge her final foes, and she tried with all her might to walk the other way, to hear Teala laugh as she described her fainting visions, to listen to the same old speech about the always-broken Wireless Communication system. But, for once, the voices refused to let the two meet. They had one goal and one goal only, and meeting with Teala wasn’t part of the plan.

The voices wouldn’t grant her even that brief reprieve between Elite Four battles, and her struggles never allowed her to resist their commands. There was only one option left, then. The voices seemed certain that they would move on after she had become Champion. If she couldn’t meet Teala beforehand… well, she would just have to rush the process a little. A whispered a few words of advice to her Slaking before battle, knowing that their bond would make them all the stronger…

The voices kept talking about how long it would take to beat the Elite Four. There was some sort of deadline in a week, and some were concerned that she wouldn’t make it in time, that they would have to stay and haunt her for even longer. They spoke of others taken over by the voices, how they had taken several days to overcome this one obstacle, with one poor girl spending almost a week doing little else…

The others had taken dozens, even hundreds of attempts before they managed to beat the Elite Four.

It only took A eight tries.

And as Professor Oak rambled on about what an honor it was to be Champion and the voices faded away, A found herself unable to focus on her surroundings, her thoughts wandering to another setting entirely. In her mind’s eye, she was not in that cold grim Hall of Fame, but in a room with cool beige tiles and pink counters.

And in that fantasy, the one she was talking to wasn’t stodgy old Professor Oak from Pallet Town, but a woman from Viridian.

A woman with brown hair and a wide grin.


End file.
